Uncharted Seas (28 page)

Unity shook her head. ‘I don’t see how he can unless we drift there. He seemed certain this afternoon that the current’s carrying us to the south-west now. He means to use the ship’s engines too, when we get further in, at a very slow speed to help us a little; or to keep the ship broadside on to the wind if that looks like giving us any assistance.’

Harlem gave an evil grin. ‘Shua, ah had a hunch it’d be dat way. Dey’s not fond of whites in de coloured folks’s island—so de poor trash nigger wid de scalp wound says. De white dames is plenty welcome but dey bumps off de men because dey’s top dogs in dis part of de world and dere ain’t no white cops to prevent dese niggers having deir way.’

‘Yes, they’ve reverted to a stage of complete barbarity, I hear,’ said Unity acidly, and she turned abruptly on her heel.

When she joined the others she told Luvia of her conversation with Harlem and asked him what he intended to do about the ex-mutineers.

He shrugged his big shoulders. ‘We don’t want ’em. They’ll only cause trouble among Yonita’s people. I’d give ’em a break if I could but how we’d put the three of them over to their heathen soul-mates I just don’t see.’

‘You do think it’s quite certain that we’ll beach on Yonita’s island then?’

‘I can’t guarantee it but things are sure shaping that way. While you were having your party with Basil this afternoon I was on the job checking compass bearings. We’re several hundred yards west of where we were this forenoon so Satan’s Island’s a little farther off than it was then. First thing tomorrow I mean to check up again. Even if I can’t shove her through the weed, I’ll be able to turn the ship a bit so as to get the advantage of what little breeze there is. That’ll help carry us into the main current.’

‘You don’t think Harlem and his friends are likely to cut up rough again, do you?’

‘They may try an’ pull a quick one but I doubt it’ll do them any good. Corncob’s out of it with De Brissac so there’s only Harlem and Nudäa left in the ship. Jansen, Hansie, Largertöf, Vicente, Li Foo and I could mighty soon put them in the can.’

‘How about the wounded Negroes from the island?’ Unity asked.

‘One cashed in his checks this afternoon and another is booked for the Golden Shore tonight. The thigh-bone of the third was smashed by a bullet near the groin so he’s a cripple for keeps. That only leaves the guy who stopped one with his head, and I reckon his headache’ll keep him thinking plenty for the next two days.’

Unity went off to the galley to help Synolda prepare supper and they all met again when it was served. Conversation that night was almost entirely about Yonita’s island, how soon they were likely to reach the shore and what the future might hold for them as settlers there. Almost immediately after the meal Unity went to her cabin, leaving Synolda, Vicente and Luvia together.

Vicente had recovered from his mauling by the octopus the day before although he was still somewhat stiff and bruised. To prevent Luvia getting ahead of him with Synolda again he suggested at once that she might like to come out and sit up on the poop with him.

‘No thanks,’ she gave a little shudder. ‘I’m not going on deck with anybody after dark again unless I have to. You seem to’ve forgotten pretty quickly what happened to poor Bremer in the early hours this morning.’

‘But we would sit amidships,’ he protested, ‘and the octopus’s tentacle is not so long that ’e should get us there.’

‘I don’t know so much,’ she replied quickly. ‘From what I’ve seen of them they look about forty feet of wriggling horror. You can risk it if you like. I’m not going to.’

‘Come with me up to the bridge then, please.’

Luvia glanced across. ‘Sorry to spoil your evening, Vedras, but I guess you’ve forgotten you’re just about due for your watch below. We’ve got to keep the boilers going, else I won’t be able to manœuvre the ship tomorrow.’

Vicente banged the table angrily. ‘You take advantage, I am a passenger. Work in the stoke ’ole is not for me.’

‘Oh, shucks!’ Luvia shrugged. ‘We sorted all that long ago. Sutherland’s been taking his turn at the furnaces and De Brissac would have too if he hadn’t only just become fit again. As it is he’s been employed on other jobs and he’s risked his neck going out there on to the weed tonight. You’re only on a two-hour shift, instead of four, now there’s no other work to be done. You’ve got nothing to kick about.’

‘I am a passenger,’ Vicente snapped standing up. ‘My passage moneys is paid before I leave Cape Town. I refuse more of the shovelling coal. You are employed by the Company. Do it yourself.’

‘What the hell’s bitten you?’ Luvia asked. ‘All this talk of passengers and companies is just boloney now we’ve all got to stick around these parts for the rest of our lives. We’re just a bunch of folks who’ve been darn lucky to escape so far from a whole lot of tight spots and we’ve only done that because we’ve hung together, taking an equal share in the jobs that had to be done.’

‘I do not care,’ cried Vicente flushing scarlet. ‘If what you say is so and there are passengers no more, then there are officers no more also. We are equals. Why should I shovel coal for making boilers steam while you sit ‘ere drinking at your pleasure? It is your turn to make the fire.’

‘Sorry,’ Luvia said coldly, ‘but I’m afraid that’s not quite how it pans out. If we get to Yonita’s island we’ll all have to work, I guess, and I’ll be happy to do just the same share of hoeing and reaping as they hand you. But as long as we’re on the
Gafelborg
, I’m running the outfit. It hasn’t been all jam for me whatever you may think; and this past fortnight I’ve had a darn sight less sleep than you. I could do your job but you can’t do mine. That’s the way it is and that’s the way it’ll be till we’re safe ashore, whether you like it or no.’

‘So!—then I will make choose my own hour. I will work from two to four or four till six, but at the present I remain ’ere.’

‘Oh, Vicente, don’t be such a fool,’ Synolda broke in. ‘You’re behaving like a perfect child.’

‘You wish to get rid of me, eh?’ he challenged suspiciously.

‘Oh, no,’ she protested quickly. ‘Of course we don’t. But it’s so stupid to try and upset the running of everything like this when there’s nothing to be gained by it.’

‘I am the one to say that,’ he snapped.

Luvia stood up, towering above the Venezuelan. ‘Listen here, Vedras. I’m through. If you fix it to swop watches with one of the others any time I won’t hold out on you for the necessary O.K., but it’s a piker’s trick on the rest of the bunch to fall down on your job without warning. Either you go down and get busy, or I’ll have to take you by the seat of your pants and pitch you in the can. You won’t find it any too pleasant trying to sleep off this pet of yours in irons.’

Vicente’s face momentarily lost its rich colouring. ‘Enough!’ he cried. ‘You threaten me! All right! I do the fires; but you shall ‘ear more of this.’ Angrily he swung away and stamped down the companionway.

Synolda smiled as she saw him go. She was no longer frightened of Vicente, only, in the darkness of her heart, a little sorry for him. She had never actively disliked him and understood so well the torture of jealousy he was suffering at the moment. Three nights before their situation had been very different; they had both expected then that a few more days might see the
Gafelborg
docking at a South American port. Now, there did not seem the faintest prospect that they would ever again reach the world that lay outside the weed continent.

‘What about another drink?’ Luvia suggested, breaking in on her thoughts.

‘Grand,’ she said. ‘As we’ve been left all on our own don’t you think we might run to a bottle of fizz.’

‘Why, sure.’ He gave a happy laugh. ‘If you’d like it, honey. There’s no more in Hansie’s store but I’ll go below and open up a case.’

Left to herself her mind reverted to the irate Venezuelan. The future was still a little uncertain, but the day’s events pointed strongly to the
Gafelborg’s
company joining the colonists on Yonita’s island and settling down there. Synolda had already decided in her mind exactly the sort of settling down that she would like to do. Men could be a bore when you didn’t like them, but life without a man was quite unthinkable to her and, with a man one really liked to shoo off the others, a very delightful prospect indeed could be envisaged.

In Juhani Luvia she had met a man who really fulfilled her ideal of what a man should be—strong, kind, passionate, but not vicious; possessive, but not domineering—a Viking lover that any woman might envy her. Synolda’s instinct told her that he was the faithful sort who would never look at another woman once he found one he truly cared about, and she meant to stick to him like glue. She had had much more experience than most women crammed into a lifetime, although she was only twenty-six, and she meant to make Juhani just the most faithful and adoring wife that any man could have, if, of course, he would have her.

She didn’t think there was much doubt about that. It was hardly likely he would wish to remain single all his days, and beyond a pleasant friendliness he shored not the least interest in
Unity. There might be attractive girls on the island, but Synolda was quite prepared to nail her flag to the mast against all comers there. So many men had told her she understood the art of love to perfection that she had some reason to believe it, and, although she had been reluctant to stop painting her face at first, when she had made her bargain with Luvia, she had very soon come to see that with the healthy life on shipboard she was now looking years younger and infinitely more attractive.

She began to assess the possible harm that Vicente could do her if he turned really nasty. He might still tell Luvia and the rest what he knew about her past, but that did not unduly perturb her. If Juhani was in love with her he would understand all that so, she thought, would the others. It was the police she was scared of, but no one could extradite her to South Africa from Yonita’s island.

She made up her mind, there and then, that she would spike Vicente’s guns by telling Juhani the whole truth about her flight from Cape Town at the first opportunity. For the next two hours there was little likelihood of their being disturbed so she would start working round to the subject directly he returned with the champagne.

A more tricky problem was the danger that if Vicente’s jealousy led to another violent scene with Luvia the Venezuelan might announce that she had already given way to him. She wondered how Juhani would take that? He was a man of the world, so, if he was as fond of her as she supposed, she did not think that, apart from being naturally upset, he would hold it against her when he knew she had been forced to it. At the same time, Synolda was well aware that men were strange creatures and regarded the lapses of women they were in love with very differently from their own. The young Finn was such a straightforward fellow he might take it very badly indeed and refuse to have anything more to do with her.

That was a most unpleasant thought. She wondered if, perhaps, she had better tell Juhani about her reluctant surrender to Vicente as well as about being wanted by the police, but the shipboard episode was just the sort of thing that might linger and rankle in his mind. Much as she wanted to play fair with him she decided, out of the depths of her practical wisdom, that she had far better not risk it. Vicente could not show one atom of proof that he had ever spent a night in her cabin, and, if she denied it strongly enough, Juhani would certainly believe her rather than
him. The accusation could easily be attributed to jealous spite in view of the way Vicente so consistently dogged her footsteps.

Just as she had reached these decisions Juhani appeared with a bottle of champagne in each hand. Setting them down on the table he stooped and kissed her. She flung an arm round his neck, and, moving her mouth to his ear, whispered: ‘Isn’t it fun being on our own like this. We can make a night of it, can’t we?’

He kissed her again and smiled down into her eyes. ‘We certainly can, sweetheart, and I’ll bet that’s what Vicente’s thinking. Poor sap, I passed him with the fizz in my hands just a moment back as he was going from his cabin down to the stokehold. He looked sicker than any dog.’

‘Poor dear,’ she laughed, ‘he’s not a bad sort. He’s just terribly jealous, that’s all.’

Luvia picked up one of the bottles and began to open it. ‘Well, so’d I be if I thought you were interested in him.’

‘How do you know I’m not?’ Synolda smiled.

‘Stop kidding now. How could you be, honey—a sweet thing like you, and—snakes alive—he’s old enough to be your granddad!’

She shrugged impatiently and held her glass for him to fill. ‘Nonsense, he’s not much past the middle forties and I’m an old woman of twenty-six. Let’s forget him and drink a toast.’

‘Right; what’ll we drink to?’

‘Yonita’s island,’ she suggested.

‘Sure—Yonita’s island, and the happiness we’ll be finding there.’

She leant towards him. ‘How are you so certain we’re going to find happiness?’

‘It’s just round the corner if you want it. I’ll make you happy, Synolda, sweet, or I’ll die in the attempt.’

For a moment she stared at him solemnly with her fine blue eyes. Her slant eyebrows tilted a little. ‘D’you mean that, Juhani? You really want me for keeps?’

‘I certainly do. You’re the sweetest and loveliest thing I’ve ever set eyes on. To hell with the sea. It’s all right for a single man but no sort of life when you’re married. I’m mighty glad things have panned out just this way. I won’t have to leave you, to go racketing round the world patching up engines any more, to make a living. My granddad was a farmer, home in Finland, and I spent a good bit of my boyhood on his farm. I know quite a piece about farming, and I’m not scared of having to till a hunk of land. These
islanders must be decent folks, too, from what that Spanish-looking kid said this forenoon; a simple, happy sort of crowd to live among. No taxes, no wars, no crook politicians, or any other darned thing to worry about. It’ll be grand—simply grand!’

She smiled again. ‘Juhani, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard you make such a long speech before. But it sounds lovely and I’m going to adore it—adore every minute of it.’